Earlier in this year a scientific study or two were released dealing with sitting and the health problems it can cause. Some points were interesting and one or two were outright controversial. However, one thing that these reports highlighted once again is that too much sitting is not good for you.
Doctors even have a name for the health problems caused by too much sitting. They call it sitting disease. As if there are not already enough diseases in the world.
As a result of these studies I decided it is time for a post on the matter.
They include but are not limited to the following:
Let’s look at the more common problems in more details.
Our bodies contain hormones that burn fat. Exercise triggers these fat burning hormones. Let’s see movement and activity (read exercise) as slave drivers that ensure the fat burning hormones do their job. Once you take the slave drivers away these hormones get lazy. Initially they will still do a bit of work but the longer the slave drivers are away the lazier these buggers get. The longer you sit the lazier these hormones get and the bigger your chances to get fat.
But that is not all.
When we are inactive our bodies use less energy and need less food. Yet, while we sit in front of the T.V. we are bombarded with ads showing us the one succulent meal after the other. So although we need less energy we often snack while we sit in front of the TV, causing weight gain.
A study by researchers from the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health indicate that men who sit too much have a much higher risk to die from cardiovascular disease even when they exercise regularly. Those who sat the most had a 64% higher chance to die from cardiovascular disease than those who sat half as much.
I wonder whether it is really the sitting or rather the inactivity. It would have been interesting to see the results if they replaced the sitting by say lying down.
In studies done on rats and mice unhealthy cellular changes of the muscles quickly occurred when the rats were not allowed to run around freely in their cages. There were more fatty acids in their blood and they showed signs of insulin resistance. So what does this have to do with sitting? The scientists believe this is caused by a lack of isometric muscle contraction. And the more you sit the less isometric muscle contraction occurs.
Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences puts the above as follows: “after four hours of sitting the body starts to send harmful signals,” and “genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down.”
When you sit for long periods of time some muscles, most notably your hip flexors and hamstrings get very tight. This tightness can cause severe discomfort and pain, including back pain. If you take into account that your hip flexors, runs from your upper leg to your hip and deep into your lower back, it makes perfect sense that it can be a cause of back pain.
It is believed that damage to the valves inside our veins is one of the major causes of varicose veins. The job of these valves is to let blood flow in one direction only. So how does sitting contribute to varicose veins?
Movement of the legs helps to transport deoxygenated blood back from the lower parts of our body to the heart. When you sit there is very little movement of the legs so transporting of the deoxygenated blood becomes harder. This can cause blood to pool in the legs, increasing pressure on the valves inside the veins, eventually weakening and damaging them.
A lot of people with varicose veins report that lifting their legs provides big relief, so a foot rest may be the answer if you suffer from varicose veins.
Depressing? Yes it is, but don’t despair. In the next post we will look at things you can do to make your amount of sitting less detrimental to your health.
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